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Everyone is still talking iPhone 5 but frankly we’re more excited about the new iPad Mini.

We can see car audio shops already getting ready to devise a way to integrate it into the dash. One analyst says that the Mini will have a superior design to the regular iPad with a still-healthy 7.85-inch screen — and even “feel better” in consumers’ hands.

It’s possible that the device will be available for sale sooner than we thought — think weeks, not months.

“Apple did not skimp on the aesthetics of the much-anticipated iPad Mini,” Brian White, an analyst at Topeka Capital Markets, recently said in a research note obtained by All Things Digital. “In fact, we believe the iPad Mini could outshine the new iPad in terms of how the device feels in a consumer’s hands.”

For full coverage on the hype around the iPad Mini roll-out, read more from CNET below:

Very soon, Nokia may NOT be a major phone player, but it looks like the company’s here to stay in the battle over map supremacy.

Everyone agrees that mobile is the future — and a large part of that has to do with map data and location services.

Nokia has signed Oracle to provide exactly that, as it already does for other partners, like Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon. (Not a shabby client list!)

In 2007, Nokia acquired mapping company Navteq to make its own cartography service relevant. The company has fought hard and hasn’t done too shabby — in fact, its service has even been judged solid enough to replace Bing maps in Windows Phone 8.

Given Apple’s recent stumble with its nav app using data from TomTom, Nokia is looking a little less foolish for having missed out on the smartphone market. It may yet win the fight against Google and Apple and re-emerge as a one of the major players among the tech companies.

It may even spur them to create the next great communication device!

Read full coverage on Nokia and the mobile map battle from Gizmodo here:

That’s right, Apple sold a “disappointing” 5 million iPhones over the weekend.

It did, however, garner mostly positive reviews for its latest iteration. Of course, the switch from Google Maps to its proprietary app utilizing map data from TomTom and OpenStreetMap has been the focal point for a lot of the negative criticism that’s out there from technology gadget reviewers.

“Apple believes that they can deliver a better experience for customers than Google,” said Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst at Forrester Research, told Bloomberg. “But in the short term, Google has a better mapping application, and iPhone customers will suffer.”

YouTube has also been dropped from the suite of apps on the phone — so clearly the rivalry is on between these tech giants. Put up your dukes!!!!

Apple’s rivalry with Google was born after the search giant rolled out the Android mobile operating system, which runs smartphones from manufacturers like HTC Corp. and Samsung — all of which compete with the iPhone. Android is now the most popular smartphone software in the world to date.

Pandora and others like it look like they’ll be toast once Apple launches its music streaming service — which will be a part of iTunes.

The proverbial 800-pound tech gorilla is in negotiations with record labels to make this happen. They are betting on the fact that with consumers being plugged in all the time, they will start to move away from owning music files to simply playing them off the Web.

Similar to the streaming stations you already love like iheartradio, Pandora, and Spotify, Apple would provide an experience where users can listen to music based on artist, favorite song, genre, or other information. Apple hopes to bend the rules when it comes to the regulations its competitors must abide by.

What does this mean for you? You can listen to more songs by your favorite artists in an hour than with any other streaming site.

Already excited for this potential service? Well, you better hope you are equipped with an Apple product — the service is said to be focused on the mobile platform — which includes the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad. This means all you Android users and Microsoft lovers will be left in the dust.

While most of this is still rumor, hopefully we will see the release of this service when the next generation iPod is released.

The iPhone 4S, the most recent generation of the iPhone.Credit: Wikipedia.

Drivers are holding on to their cars longer than ever before, and consumers are doing the same for smartphones.

Part of this is due to people waiting for the next iPhone, but the other factor is the already high penetration rate, as in over 50 percent of Americans that have mobile phones own the “smart” variety. This makes the launch of the iPhone 5 (and all those apps) even more critical.

We all know Apple fans are anxiously awaiting the release of their latest model — the iPhone 4 is becoming ancient technology to the faithful Apple users.

According to a recent article from Reuters, the global smartphone industry is a lot more vulnerable to economic shocks these days than during the 2008-2009 financial crisis — if Apple’s weaker-than-expected most recent quarterly result is anything to go by.

Half of all consumers already own a smartphone in developed markets — and penetration rates are much lower in emerging markets, where cheaper phones costing less than $100 are hurting the profit margins of the smartphone giants.

Just look at those who are still using their dinosaur phones like the Envy 1 — lucky for them they could have an easier time joining the smartphone family. With Japanese brands such as LG and Samsung providing smartphones at a smaller cost, they have opened the market for people to get on the smartphone train (the 4G service provided with some of these phones doesn’t hurt either).

In this down economy, the smartphone industry has been able to take the world by storm, but with the market for new phones in a downward trend, what brands will provide the most advanced technology to survive? Only time will tell.